A sheet-like test device made by forming conductive patterns on a sheet through serigraph, and electrically connecting terminals of the conductive patterns to pads of a communication module through conductive adhesive has been put to practical use (see JP-A 2008-516248 (Kokai)).
The test device disclosed in this publication can be sent to a user as a mail. When the user receives it and removes the cover sheet, the user can find some selection buttons and explanations thereof on the inner page. When the user presses an arbitrary selection button in accordance with the explanations, the information is stored in a communication module embedded in a paper substrate, and the stored information can be read into a host device through close proximity wireless communication.
However, in the test device disclosed in JP-A 2008-516248 (Kokai), the user cannot cancel a selection button pressed by mistake, and information about the selection button pressed by mistake is directly transmitted to the host device.
Further, each selection button is connected to a terminal having a different conductive pattern, which means that the total number of selection buttons is limited by the number of terminals of the conductive patterns. Since the size of the paper substrate is limited, it is not easy to increase the number of terminals of the conductive patterns, which makes it impossible to provide many selection buttons.
As another problem, when many selection buttons are provided on the paper substrate, it is not easy for elderly people or disability people to select an appropriate button and it takes much time to read the explanation generally described in small print.
The present invention has been made considering the above problems, to provide a user-friendly information-gathering device enabling users to select buttons easily.
In order to solve the above problems, one aspect of the present invention provides a sheet-like information-gathering device including:
a plurality of selection buttons to be pressed by a user; and
a communication module capable of storing at least identification information about the user and information about a pressed selection button, to wirelessly transmit the stored information to a host device has a cancel button to cancel the information about the selection button pressed by the user,
wherein the communication module has an IC chip and a button cell which supplies power-supply voltage to this IC chip,
the IC chip having:
a storage which stores information which identifies the pressed selection button and information about the time of the press, in chronological order;
a controller which performs control to store the information in the storage; and
a wireless communication unit which performs close proximity wireless communication with the host device,
the controller, when the cancel button is pressed, to store, in the storage, information requesting to cancel press information about the selection button pressed immediately before the cancel button is pressed.
Further, another aspect of the present invention provides an information-gathering device including:
a plurality of buttons arranged on a first layer of a sheet substrate, to be arbitrarily selected;
a plurality of switch contacts arranged on a second layer of the sheet substrate, corresponding to the buttons;
a terminal unit having a plurality of terminals arranged on a line on the second layer; and
a plurality of conductive patterns connecting the switch contacts to the terminals,
in which two or more of the buttons are partially arranged in one direction so that one ends of switch contacts corresponding to the buttons are connected to an identical terminal of the terminal unit through the conductive patterns, and that the other ends thereof are connected to a ground terminal of the terminal unit through the conductive patterns.
The present invention can provide a user-friendly information-gathering device enabling users to select buttons easily.